1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antitheft apparatus for an automotive vehicle for locking vehicle doors double.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In this specification, a function of further constraining locked doors so as not to be unlocked is referred to as "dead (i.e., double)-lock", and a function of setting the locked doors to the dead-lock status is referred to as "set" and a function of releasing the dead-locked doors from the dead-lock status is referred to as "reset".
An antitheft apparatus for an automotive vehicle such that vehicle doors once locked are further constrained so as not to unlocked is disclosed in Japanese Published Examined Utility Model Application No. 4-24046, for instance.
In the above-mentioned antitheft apparatus, when a key is inserted into a key cylinder of a door and further rotated to a lock position, a lock signal is transmitted from a controller to door lock actuators of all doors of an automotive vehicle, so that the door lock actuators of all the doors are actuated to lock all the doors by door lock mechanisms. Further, when the key is rotated to a set position, a set signal is transmitted from the controller to door dead-lock actuators of all doors of the automotive vehicle, so that the door dead-lock actuators of all the doors are actuated to insert a stopper member to all the door lock mechanisms, respectively for setting the vehicle doors.
Further, in the conventional antitheft apparatus, door lock knobs are provided inside the vehicle doors. Therefore, when the door lock knob is operated, the door can be locked or unlocked from the inside of the vehicle.
In the conventional antitheft apparatus as described above, however, in case all the vehicle doors are locked with the use of the door key without noticing the presence of a passenger still remaining within the vehicle room, the passenger within the vehicle room sets the door lock knob to an unlock position to unlock the door, before getting out of the vehicle. In this case, as far as the passenger sets the door lock knob once to a lock position and then closes the door, the doors can be locked. However, when the passenger closes the door without setting the door lock knob to the lock position, the door is left unlocked.
Consequently, in the conventional antitheft apparatus, there exists a problem in that even if a driver inserts the door key and rotates the key to the set position to set all the doors, the door (through which the passenger has gotten out of the vehicle) is left unlocked and therefore cannot be set.
Further, in the case as described above, when the driver rotates back the key once to the unlock position and then rotates the key from the lock position to the set position, all the doors can be set. However, this operation is troublesome and therefore involves a problem in that the manipulatability of the antitheft apparatus is not high.